More often than not, state officials and coastal engineers are skeptical of the solutions and people who peddle them.

''There's a new panacea to beach erosion every year,'' said Erik Olsen, a private coastal engineer in Jacksonville. ''None of them address the real problem, and that's a shortage of sand in the system.''

Said state engineer Paden Woodruff of the Florida Division of Beaches and Shores: ''They get dollar signs in their eyes. A lot of it isn't a con, but ignorance.''

Woodruff said these inventors and consultants have forced his agency to protect the consumer as well as the shoreline.

The erosion business is booming because of Florida's highly publicized erosion problem and opposition of state officials to standard protective devices such as seawalls and rock barriers.

Coastal experts say seawalls actually intensify erosion, so the search has been on for a better device that leaves the sand in place while shielding buildings. Costs for these devices vary widely. Plastic seaweed, for example, sells for about $50 a foot to install, compared with breakwaters that cost five times that amount.

DEVICES NEED APPROVAL

No anti-erosion equipment can be installed without a permit from the Florida Cabinet, which relies on the Division of Beaches and Shores for advice. Woodruff said that an average of one new invention a month crosses his desk for review.

Most recently, a man proposed building stainless steel seawalls. A few months ago, another man suggested setting up a portable seawall that would only be put up before storms.

''We want to be open minded,'' Woodruff said. ''We don't have all the answers, but we know the good ones from the bad ones.''

Those who want to market their products in Florida criticize the state for being close minded.

''For some strange reason, anything that is new or different raises skepticism,'' said Bill Garrett of Greenville, Del., inventor of a plastic seaweed called Seascape. He claims his product will slow down shoreline currents and cause sand to drop out and widen the beach.

PLASTIC WEED CONTROVERSIAL

It is hard to find a coastal engineer who will talk about artificial seaweed with a straight face. Weighted down offshore with sand, the seaweed fronds stick up from the bottom.

Woodruff said the material, put off some beaches in Sarasota and Palm Beach County, often washes ashore or becomes so fouled with algae and barnacles that the fronds won't stay upright. Pingpong balls and plastic foam have been used to keep the fronds buoyant.

Woodruff said the seaweed doesn't hurt the shore, but the state still restricts its sale because engineers don't think it works.

John Headland, a coastal engineer in Raleigh, N.C., who reviews seashore protective devices for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, calls the artificial seaweed artificial shore protection.

''That's what they told Orville Wright before he got his plane off the ground,'' Garrett said.

Mayor Louis Horton of Highland Beach in Palm Beach County said a group of property owners in the city chipped in and had Garrett's seaweed installed offshore six months ago. It appears to be building a sand bar that will buffer the shore against waves, he said.

''It took us 15 months to get a permit from the state,'' Horton said. ''The amount of cooperation is minimal. They are trying to make a judgment before they have the facts.''

DREDGE COMPANIES OBJECT

Dick Holmberg of Whitehall, Mich., inventor of the ''Holmberg Method'' of shore protection, said dredging companies are fighting his product because they want Florida to rely on expensive beach rebuilding projects.

Holmberg said he drops synthetic bags filled with concrete offshore, altering sea currents to direct more sand landward so the beach rebuilds naturally.

''I've had a terrible problem,'' Holmberg said. ''I've knocked on doors for 18 years. The resistance from engineers and dredging people is fierce. If you think about it, the dredging interests have $472 million at stake.''

The Florida Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the Division of Beaches and Shores, has proposed that taxpayers spend $472 million during the next 10 years on dredging projects to rebuild 140 miles of eroding shoreline. Holmberg, like many of the consultants and investors, doesn't have a coastal engineering degree.